Idk if people do or not. These are just charts I found online while researching. I would think it is safer to feed bps an asf once a week which for a 1000g+ bp, is less than 6% of their body weight by the chart I listed. The chart above recommends med rats 150g which would be 15% of the bps weight. I am sure offering them an asf every week doesn’t mean they will take every week. From the vids of Gavin’s collection, I do not see any obese bps.
Its mostly about the feeding frequency, and how consistent it is. Either way, we should be giving our snakes breaks. Pythons especially, they undergo a bunch of physiological changes to digest prey and it takes them a bit to go back to normal. Keeping them in a high metabolism state like that constantly can’t be good for them long term.
It’s seems to specify “breeding females” aka ones that are likely actively building follicles during the breeding season. I do know Gavin will increase his feedings with breeding females to allow them to put on fat stores for as well as encourage them to produce eggs.
During the off season, it would be returned to the normal 7 day schedule.
At least, that’s what I understood from the chart + remembering what he talked about in a breeding video I watched ages ago
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I do as well I think this a pretty standard practice.
I agree here but with ball pythons I prefer to let them me tell me when they need a break. Ball pythons can and will frequently go off feed so I prefer to feed them when they are eating.
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Yeah, I’ve done it myself too with breeding females. I usually feed my females small rats once a week or once every other week (a couple of my females need less food due to tendency to be chunky) but during breeding season this increased accordingly (usually two small rats or so a week)
(To clarify since this is an ASF thread, I feed the usual rats, not ASF.)
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That references males fed a lot over a short period, not their whole lives. It also says females don’t benefit from it due to needing time to mature internally. I agree that we feed far to much too often in this hobby, and fasting animals much as @t_h_wyman does can only benefit the animals. That said, this thread is about breeding rodents, not feeding snakes. Feed as you see fit and just keep your animals body condition ideal, never 100% go by the book or by what breeders say. If I did that my snakes would be fat sausages. Also, isn’t there a thread on feeding ASF? I honestly can’t remember.
I have, I think you’ve missed my point, as also discussed in that thread. It’s not healthy long term. It’s fine for bulking up after a female has laid or a growing hatchling, but only temporarily. It’s best to let these animals have some down time instead of keeping them in a state of constant digestion. Especially with pythons, they undergo significant physiological changes to digest food. The amount fed in total is a different discussion as well, all I’ll say about that is there’s a lot of obese snakes out there, and a breeder’s feeding schedual shouldn’t be the routine someone who just has a pet uses.
I’m afraid I’ve derailed this thread, apologies.
So, anybody that’s had some experience with ASF’s, what are some good things to feed them? I’m mainly wondering if they have any preferences or if anyone noticed they were more successful with this vs. that, etc.
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I feed my asfs a staple of Mazuri Rat & Mouse Diet, since it has the most crude protein. I give them a secondary food option every other day. Normally a mix of carrots, berries, sunflower seeds, dried mealworms, mixed bird seeds, dried rolled oats, and other vegetables and fruits. I refer to this website for what is safe to feed and try a little of each. By far, my asfs LOVE carrots and will sometime fight over it. I make sure to add plenty when I do.
A List of Safe and Dangerous Foods for Your Pet Rat - PetHelpful
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Alright, thank you. I’m using a couple different foods, some of what looked like decent choices that are similar to what you recommended from local pet stores. The raw foods like carrots and berries I’ll have to keep up with, then. I’ve gave them some carrots and saw those disappeared fairly quickly but wasn’t sure if they were just extra hungry after being moved around and stressed, since they’re a new group. I’ve kept rats before but nothing special, but this group of ASF seem to be pretty selective about their mixed food, so thanks for that bit of clarity.
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If you plan on breeding, just make sure to up the food with high protein. They can and will eat their babies if they are low in protein.
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On top of all that, some feeder insects are also good for them. Since they eat a large amount of bugs in the wild.
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They look so cute
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So, the first successful litter of 14 survived until being transferred to “The Mile”, with less success with the following litters. I have another litter of 13 that survived, out of 15, that were just born today, but we’ll see how that goes, the litter between these had roughly the same number and was down to 4 before these were born. The one prior to that I believe started out at 10-12 and only two survived to hopper size from that one. The last female to have a litter was the only one I caught eating any babies (at least out of the litter previous to this), with full access to a range of food and plenty of protein, so I’m wondering if she was/is in competition with one of the other mothers. I’ll have to keep an eye on that, though, it’s only a 1.3 colony at the moment, so competition between females doesn’t seem extremely likely but it’s possible.
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Congrats. I have been giving my two colonies Mazuri Mice and Rat mix, sunflower seeds, almonds, dried mealworms, dried bsfl, carrots, black berries and strawberries. I also added boiled eggs and cooked chicken breasts for the past month and seeing more babies actually get to hopper size. Not sure if the added protein is helping, or but not going to complain because now I have a lot of hoppers in the grow out bins. Before adding the chicken breasts and eggs, I was having babies drop left and right. I still see one asf eating babies, but I think she is eating stillborns, new mother, I see the live ones nursing under her and the other mothers.
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Thanks. They’re on a daily helping of Mazuri Rat and Mouse Diet, as I’ve been unable to source any 6F locally and it seems that when I try get any of the local distributors I was referred to by Mazuri to discuss getting me some, they start hearing me speak another strange, incomprehensible language when the conversation turns to “Can you order me this?”… Other than that, I’m feeding everyone a mixture of fruits and vegetables every other day, and giving the adults protein like chicken and eggs at the same time. I’ve been doing scrambled eggs, and maybe it won’t make a difference but they might distribute sliced hardboiled eggs better, it’s probably the only change I can think to make right now though that may help any.
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Mine seem to enjoy the boiled eggs with shell. At first they were freaked out when I just put a solid egg in their bin. I figured I needed to crack it pretty good so they can smell the white and yolk.
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